TIMELY TUNES

I was a big fan of Iron Chic’s 2013 album, “The Constant One”, but after the tragic death of founding guitarist Rob McAllister, I wondered if the band would ever follow it up. Fortunately, the Long Island punk band’s new single is a fist-pumping, black humored, multi-hooked barnburner. For a band that once memorialized The Gin Blossoms in a song (“True Miserable Experience”), it’s not entirely surprising that their catchiest song to date would sound a bit like emo’s answer to “Hey Jealousy”.

The Replacements are, without a doubt, my favorite American rock and roll band of all time; a quartet of Minneapolis misfits who wrapped perfect pop songs in a coat of ragged punk threads. They were also one of the most frustratingly wonderful live bands of their era, capable of ramshackle, drunken destruction or mercurial brilliance (often in the same set). On September 29, Rhino Records is releasing a double disc set of their legendary 1986 show at Maxwell’s.

Neil Young “Give Me Strength” (From “Hitchhiker”)

Neil Young has given us half a century of brilliant songs, bizarre artistic cul-de-sacs, and transcendent live performances. There has also always been a mythic belief that he probably has an innumerable bounty of gems in his vast vault. In 1976, during one of the peak eras of his overflowing genius, he spent one night recording a collection of ten sad, stripped-bare, beautiful songs that fell into the cracks of history. Many of the songs were re-worked and released in different forms on future albums, but a couple were never given a proper home. Now that Young has finally officially released “Hitchhiker”, we get the previously unreleased “Give Me Strength”, a simple, gorgeous song about moving on.

Kelela “Frontline” (From “Take Me Apart”)

The second single from Kelela’s highly anticipated new album, another collaboration with young producer Jam City, is a jaw-dropper. Her music, a meticulously well-crafted blend of abstracted synthesizers and laser-precise human emotion, sounds beamed in from the future. This is the sound of an artist reaching the pinnacle of her prowess.

Lorenzo Senni “The Shape of Trance to Come”

In 1959, alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman blew apart the jazz world with the masterpiece “The Shape of Jazz to Come”. Italian producer Lorenzo Senni’s latest single is a winking nod to Coleman (and perhaps also to the Refused’s later “The Shape of Punk to Come”). Trance has little of the critical cache of either jazz or punk, generally dismissed as a somewhat gauche, corny substratum of club music. But Senni is a playful experimentalist capable of bending the core elements of club euphoria into much darker, stranger clusters of sound.

A new month calls for some new tunes, right? This week on Timely Tunes we have music from LCD Soundsystem, Samantha Urbani, Hiss Golden Messenger, and Sannhet. We also honor the memories of two musicians we lost this week.

TIMELY TUNES

LCD Soundsystem “oh baby” (From “American Dream”)

When James Murphy’s LCD Soundsystem called it quits in 2011, complete with a wake-like capstone concert at Madison Square Garden, it felt like the perfect endpoint for one of the most consistent and zeitgeisty bands of the 2000s. Apparently, David Bowie himself urged Murphy to give it another go, and when Bowie gives you advice, you take it. I had no doubt that Murphy was still capable of great things, but I had no way of expecting THIS: LCD Soundsystem’s greatest record in a discography made up of only great records. The leadoff track, “oh baby”, seems a nod to Suicide’s classic “Dream Baby Dream” and is one of the most open-hearted, gorgeous songs the group has ever released. A triumphant way to open what turns out to be a darker, yet still hopeful, album-length meditation on aging and loss. *Note: I have already included “Dream Baby Dream” on another week’s playlist, but it seemed necessary to include it again here, in a slightly different version.

Samantha Urbani “Time Time Time” (From “Policies of Power EP”)

A big, bold, meticulously crafted pop song that is equal parts “Like a Prayer”-era Madonna, “Rhythm Nation”-era Janet Jackson, and “Sign O The Times”-era Prince. Samantha Urbani is the former paramour of modern pop maverick Dev Hynes, and her sound, especially in its tasteful use of saxophone, shares a similar sonic space as Hynes’ Blood Orange project. The track balances just on the precipice of cheesy nostalgia, but manages to be one of the most refreshing pop songs of the year.

It’s only been a year since MC Taylor’s last record as Hiss Golden Messenger, the wonderful “Heart Like a Levee”, but if “When the Wall Comes Down” is any indication, he remains on a roll. It’s a big-hearted, reassuring hymn to resilience in the face of a world that seems intent on building walls and breaking apart families. I haven’t felt very confident in the fate of humanity this year, but music has the power to light a path back to hope.

Sannhet “Way Out” (From “So Numb”)

Sannhet are an instrumental trio from Brooklyn that make a cacophonous sound out of the building blocks of black metal and autumnal post-rock. Their latest album, “So Numb”, is their most accomplished work yet, moving farther away from the cold nihilism of black metal and closer to something more immediate and approachable. That’s not to say they have lost any of their ferocity, and “Way Out” is a beast of wordless emotion.

This past week we have lost two of the most singular and idiosyncratic titans of music: CAN’s Holger Czukay and Steely Dan’s Walter Becker. Two very different bands, but both were gigantic gateways of sound for me in my youth and continue to be important to me. I have included songs from both artists this week.

New tunes this week here on Timely Tunes include the latest by Grizzly Bear, Kotomi, Brand New and Julien Baker. Plus, a brand new playlist for your listening enjoyment!

Timely Tunes

Grizzly Bear “Losing All Sense” (From “Painted Ruins”)

Grizzly Bear remain reliable to such a degree that I kind of take them for granted. They create immaculately-produced, subtly expansive indie rock that feels almost anachronistic in the pop and rock landscape of 2017. “Losing All Sense” is psychedelia-adjacent in its beguiling labyrinth of melodic pleasure zones.

Kotomi “Ooh La La”

A balmy, understated electro-pop end-of-summer jam from Lauren Hillman, an LA-based singer and producer. If you, like me, mourned the retirement of the excellent and similarly-inclined Chairlift, this track could help to fill that void. “Ooh La La” captures the cohabiting feelings of ebullience and melancholy that accompanies the realization the pools will soon be closing and covered with falling leaves.

Brand New “Can’t Get It Out” (From “Science Fiction”)

The anticipation built up in the eight years between Brand New’s previous album to this one, which the band has pretty openly projected to be their last, created a level of pressure that seemed impossible to live up to. Last week, without warning, they finally brought “Science Fiction” into the world, and I’m happy to report that it’s one of the most complex, restrained, and rewarding rock albums of the year. The evolution of this band from a pretty good emo/melodic hardcore band into a truly GREAT, boundary-pushing rock band over the course of five albums culminates in what might be their best work yet. Of all the tracks on the album, “Can’t Get It Out” is the one that most is the closest kin to past work, an emotionally riveting anthem that keeps revealing new tricks the longer the wick burns, but this is an album that is best experienced in full.

Julien Baker “Appointments” (From “Turn Out the Lights”)

Julien Baker’s debut album “Sprained Ankle” was a sadly beautiful revelation of youthful fears and cautious hope. “Appointments”, the first single from its follow-up, is a continuation of that story. Over the barest of accompaniment, her aching voice rises from quiet trepidation to a forceful longing; an instrument straining to be heard in the night.

This week, Timely Tunes features music from Kesha, The National, The Dream Syndicate, Lo Tom, Yumi Zouma, and K A R Y Y N.

Timely Tunes

Kesha “Bastards” (From “Rainbow”)

Kesha, who at the turn of this decade, was a brash, colorful pop star with a personality as big as Lady Gaga or Katy Perry with hits to match. “Rainbow” is her first album in five years, due to a horrifying legal battle with her former producer, who is accused of doing some pretty evil shit. The album is a stylistic kaleidoscope and a powerful statement of empowerment and reclamation, and her strongest to date. Opening cut, “Bastards”, is a beautiful country ballad that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Kacey Musgraves album. It’s an ode to not giving up in the face of horrible people and awful situations that sounds even more reassuring after the events in Charlottesville.

The National “Carin at the Liquor Store” (From “Sleep Well Beast”)

“Carin at the Liquor Store” isn’t The National reinventing their wheel: it’s another in a long line of brooding, melodically rich ballads. But they are so untouchably good at what they do, that I don’t mean that as any sort of slight. Where this song DOES depart a bit from past explorations is that lyricist and singer Matt Berninger trades in his usual abstractions for more open, direct references to his real-life wife. It feels intimate and grand at the same time.

The Dream Syndicate “Glide” (From “How Did I Find Myself Here?”)

One of the more unexpected reunion albums by one of the most under-appreciated bands of their era. The Dream Syndicate took their name, somewhat confusingly for amateur record collectors, from a 1960s collaboration by La Monte Young, Tony Conrad, and John Cale, and merged psychedelic and garage punk influences into 1982’s “The Days of Wine and Roses”, still one of the most impressive and singular debuts by any band. The called it quits in 1989, but everything old is new again, and “Glide” has the energy and power of a band half their age.

Lo Tom “Overboard” (From “Lo Tom”)

This is the supergroup of my teenage dreams: David Bazan and TW Walsh (of Pedro the Lion) with Jason Martin (of Starflyer 59), and Trey Many (of Starflyer 59 and Velour 100). For a very brief blip in my mid-teens I became convinced that I should stay away from secular music and seek out more spiritually edifying bands. The problem is, when you have already been exposed to Pavement, The Velvet Underground, and Sonic Youth, most Christian rock just ain’t gonna cut it, no matter how much you want to please Jesus. Pedro the Lion and Starflyer 59 were two of the bands on a very short list that I discovered during that dark time, and two that have continued to stick with me over the years. All of that to say: I was pretty excited about this album, and “Overboard” is a basically perfect earworm of a song. It makes me feel 15 again, but without all the guilt.

Yumi Zouma “Depths (Pt. I)” (From “Willowbank”)

Irresistible soft-focus disco bliss from New Zealand that gives me flash backs to a simpler time when Obama was President, and I could go to the beach with Tanlines, Air France, and Cut Copy as my soundtrack and not worry about impending civil war or nuclear fallout. Truly halcyon days. What was I saying? Oh yeah…this band is delightful.

K A R Y Y N “MOVING MASSES” (From “of Light”)

A beautiful, emotionally overpowering selection by musician K A R Y Y N composed for Samantha Shay’s recent opera “of Light”. Shay’s latest work arose out of a mentorship from unequaled performance artist Marina Abramovic and has been heavily praised by Bjork (and many others). Made out of overlapping vocal loops, and little else, “MOVING MASSES” is an incredible work of art.

Timely Tunes Volume 55 had already been written when the world received the sad news of Glen Campbell’s passing. We couldn’t publish this issue without a mention, however, so one of his songs was added to the playlist. He brought so much to the world of music and he will be greatly missed.

Timely Tunes

Sabrina Malheiros “Clareia” (from “Clareia”)

Sabrina Malheiros’ music is a refreshing update on Brazil’s rich musical tradition of bossa nova and Samba. Joined by her father, the bassist of legendary samba jazz-funk group Azymuth (a favorite of hip-hop crate diggers), the music on her latest record is a joyful and summery blast recorded overlooking Gunabara Bay. As Malheiros herself describes, the album title means “to clear, light, brighten or illuminate, which, after seeing Brazil and the rest of the world go through some very difficult times, is exactly what the writing of the album brought into my life.”

Kelela “LMK” (from “Take Me Apart”)

Remember when Timbaland was producing absolutely bonkers pop hits for Aaliyah that sounded beamed in from the future? The new Jam City-produced Kelela single sounds like we have caught up to that future. I can never begin to guess what is going to turn into a hit, but this certainly sounds like a hit.

Four Tet “Planet”

Twelve years ago, at a music festival in Chicago, I saw a vinyl-meltingly hot mid-day DJ set by Four Tet and watched while Diplo cooled himself off by doing cannonballs in the pool adjacent to us. Why tell that story now? I don’t know. This gorgeous new track is hard to not daydream to, I guess.

Moses Boyd “Sirens” (from “Absolute Zero”)

Virtuosic London drummer, composer, producer, and electronic musician Moses Boyd has worked with everyone from the aforementioned Four Tet to Tony Allen, and his new EP is stunning, boundary-pushing space jazz.

Trio Da Kali and Kronos Quartet “Eh Ya Ye” (from “Ladilikan”)

A mesmerizing collaboration between three Malian griot artists and one of the world’s great string quartet experimentalists. The full album comes out in September, and I’m excited for the full meal after this teasing taste.

Destroyer “Sky’s Grey” (from “ken”)

I’m never exactly sure what Destroyer’s Dan Bejar is talking about, but I always FEEL like I get it, and that’s what makes him one of my favorite songwriters. Here, apparently, he has been working on “the new Oliver Twist”, while “the groom’s in the gutter” and “the bride just pissed herself”. Playfully daft as always. Be sure to stick around for the second half of the song when it suddenly expands into something that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Suede album.

Randy Newman “Wandering Boy” (from “Dark Matter”)

At age 73, Randy Newman remains the mordant anchor of American pop. No one can mix sweetness with irony and satire quite like he, and “Dark Matter” is a wonderful late-career addition to an excellent discography. “Wandering Boy” is a sad and tender song based on a neighborhood boy that his daughter thought would be president one day. The boy died of heroin addiction, instead.

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We took last week off, but Timely Tunes returns this week with everything from the buoyant future-pop of Charli XCX to a slow-disintegrating Nine Inch Nails stunner. Welcome to August!

TIMELY TUNES

Charli XCX “Boys”

Charli XCX is one of the great pop chameleons of her generation, leaping from one boundary-pushing genre exercise to another. She seems comfortable collaborating with SOPHIE on Aphex Twin blender-beat post-modernism (the giddily bizarre “Vroom Vroom”) or creating meta-pop anthems. “Boys” is an example of the latter, a deceptively simple and laid-back earworm; it’s one of the most effervescent pop joys of this summer. The self-directed video (a cheeky eye-candy parade of countless male celebrities including Diplo, Mac DeMarco, Joe Jonas, A.G. Cook, Ty Dolla $ign, et al) is great too.

Jessie Ware “Midnight”

London chanteuse Jessie Ware’s excellent first two albums, 2012’s Devotion and 2014’s Tough Love, were twin pillars of sophisticated, soulful modern R&B. Her latest single highlights those skyscraping, dexterous vocals over ever-tasteful, elegant production, confirming Ware as a powerhouse of the form.

Belle & Sebastian “We Were Beautiful”

An ever-wistful Stuart Murdoch aches over unexpected, but subtle skittering drum & bass on the band’s first release in a couple years. It almost sounds like Aphex Twin remixing a Momus song, and as much as that description reads like a disjointed mess, they make it work.

Rich La Bonte “Bright Yellow Star” (From “Mayan Canals”)

Originally released in 1981, this lost gem has recently been reissued on Josh Cheon’s excellent Dark Entries label (named after the early Bauhaus single). This heavily flanged outré-pop wonder recalls the playfully weird R. Stevie Moore or Robyn Hitchcock, and I would be surprised if Ariel Pink doesn’t have a copy of this album lying around somewhere.

The War On Drugs “Strangest Thing” (From “A Deeper Understanding”)

Adam Granduciel almost sounds like he is writing a Bruce Hornsby track at the beginning of “Strangest Thing”, but just when it looks like the mandolin rain* is about to drown us all, he lifts off into the cosmos on a Crazy Horse guitar solo. No one makes the building blocks of dad rock sound this urgently vital. *No mandolins were actually hurt, or even used, in the making of this excellent track; I was just making a joke.

Nine Inch Nails “The Background World” (From “Add Violence”)

Nearly thirty years into his career leading Nine Inch Nails, an institution of disaffected angst, Trent Reznor could easily have turned into a peddler of greatest hits nostalgia. That he has proven unwilling or incapable of taking the easy road leaves him as one of the few holdovers from his generation who remains potently relevant. The second of a promised three-EP arc, “Add Violence” is both more varied and vital than last year’s predecessor (the interesting, but somewhat slight “Not the Actual Events”). The final track is a stunning, meticulous slow-burner, and honestly one of his best-ever compositions. As it self-destructs over the course of seven minutes of progressively disintegrating loops, 2017-era Reznor proves that he is equally capable of honoring NIN’s past and pushing the project into a terrifying future.

Are you ready for this week’s Timely Tunes selections? Buckle your seat belt, roll down the window and let’s blast some tunes together.

TIMELY TUNES

Mark Barrott “The Pathways Of Our Lives”

The latest track from the veteran English DJ, who is closing in on his 50th birthday, shows that he is just as capable of delighting and surprising 36 years into his career. Across seven blissed-out, laid back minutes, Barrott rides a groove that combines tribal chants, 70’s Quiet Storm easy listening, and classic House into one of the most terminally chill dance tracks of 2017. Perfect for a sunrise Ibiza set-closer or imagining yourself on a yacht, the latter of which is a daydream I engage in embarrassingly often.

Mura Masa “Firefly” (From “Mura Masa”)

Alex Crossan, better known as the producer Mura Masa, is only 21 years old and was raised on the isolated British island of Guernsey. That he has been able to sublimate so many disparate strains of worldly sounds (a tidbit of House here, some UK Garage there, lots of modern R&B, tiny glimpses of Jungle, a hint of Calypso) into a unique and sure-footed production style is proof positive of the shrinking globe we share. On this LP he also proves himself a fantastic curator, working with everyone from Blur’s Damon Albarn to Jamie Lidell to A$AP Rocky to Charli XCX, but never allowing his own personality to fall into the background. His collaboration with East London R&B chanteuse NAO, “Firefly”, is a glimmering house anthem that sounds as well-suited for late night festival fields as introspective headphone listening. Its his expertise at balancing these seemingly disparate goals that makes him such a capable young producer.

Quay Dash “Bossed Up” (From “Transphobic”)

This fierce EP by Bronx-based emcee Quay Dash originally dropped in 2016 but has just now gotten a full, label-backed release. All six tracks are great, but the swaggering (“what’s a goon to a queen?”), futuristic “Bossed Up”, produced by alien beat maverick SOPHIE, is a clear standout. In recent years, there has been a heartening rise in empowered LGBTQ hip-hop artists, and Quay uses her platform to document life as a transsexual black woman in a world where those identifiers are still attended by widespread ignorance and violence. Quay refuses to be pushed aside.

Deerhoof “I Will Spite Survive” (From “Mountain Moves”)

Deerhoof built a long career on inscrutable surrealism, maximalist experimentation, and funhouse playfulness, but on this new single, a collaboration with Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, the band gives us a rallying anthem to battle a terrifying political climate. In a statement to Democracy Now, the band said, “In this world of tyrants and CEOs seemingly hellbent on achieving the termination of our species, perhaps the most rebellious thing we could do is not die.” It’s a concise, hook-packed, power pop wonder.

Integrity have been sparking terror in extreme music audiences since 1988, leaving behind a trail of debris that has inspired a couple generations of metal-embracing punks from Converge to Full of Hell. Lead vocalist and band constant Dwid Hellion is a scary, imposing, and fully committed figure who spits nihilistic bile all over a chaotic and crushing blueprint of Midwestern hardcore and classic thrash metal. “String Up My Teeth” is one of the catchiest metallic blasts on the new album; grizzled punk veteran barking over dual-lead guitars that scream through the sky like vintage Iron Maiden.

On this week’s Timely Tunes playlist, I take you on a brief virtual tour of the globe outside of The United States (other than Hawaii and Puerto Rico) and Western Europe, highlighting a small sampling of beautiful and disparate sounds from around the world.

Timely Tunes

a weekly feature by Christopher Piercy

The term “world music” became a bastardized, financially cynical catch-all used by the Western record industry to connote marketable exoticism. In more recent years, there has been an increased interest in presenting the music as it truly is rather than as a neutered facsimile. This would be a nearly infinite playlist if I were to try to cover music from every corner of the map, but I hope that this might serve, at least, as a starting point in looking at the incredible culture the world has to offer from places often reduced to news stories of war, unrest, or poverty.

This week ranges from throwback country to throwback Compton rap, with some free improvisation, Dylanesque rock, Norwegian jazz, and avant-doom black metal thrown in for good measure.

TIMELY TUNES

Kevin Morby “Pearly Gates” (From “City Music”)

It’s only been a little over a year since Morby’s last album, but his rapid-fire prolificacy displays a songwriter in the midst of a fertile peak. His impressionistic, wordy witticism draws easy comparisons to Bob Dylan, or perhaps Father John Misty, but he is warmer than the former and less meta-ironic than the latter. “Pearly Gates” is a bouncy, joyful, but self-searching highlight from his best album yet.

Bill Orcutt “The World Without Me” (From “Bill Orcutt”)

Bill Orcutt was one of the most original guitarists to immerge from the outer realms of abstract American experimentalism in the early 90’s. As the leader of noise rock deconstructionists Harry Pussy, who drew from a diverse well of no wave, hardcore punk, and free jazz, they confounded the audiences of indie heroes and tour mates such as Sonic Youth and Sebadoh in their brief career. His new album showcases a gentler, but no less revolutionary exploration of solo guitar virtuosity and improvisation that is a spiritual cousin to the work of John Fahey and Sir Richard Bishop.

Colter Wall “Motorcycle” (From “Colter Wall”)

The twenty-two year old Saskatchewan Colter Wall has a deep, bourbon-coated voice that sounds at least twice as lived in as it really is. His assured and wonderful debut places him firmly in the camp of a new wave of country songwriters led by John Moreland and Sturgill Simpson who look back to raw, conversational artists like Guy Clarke and Townes Van Zandt (Wall covers the latter on this album). “Motorcycle” balances existential desperation with dark humor on an album that respects a simpler era of country music before the genre was coated by an impenetrable pop gloss.

MC Eiht “Got That” (From “Which Way Iz West”)

It’s been eleven years since his last album and five years since he set fire to Kendrick Lamar’s “M.A.A.D. City”, but MC Eiht’s “Got That” reconfirms him as one of the most underrated products of Compton’s classic era. His workmanlike flow is complimented by the ever-soulful production of Gang Starr’s DJ Premier, uniting East and West Coast into an exciting throwback that sounds fierce and hungry.

Arve Henriksen “Paridae” (From “Towards Language”)

Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen’s distinctive, loose embouchure tone, inspired by the sound of the Japanese shakuhachi flute, creates fragile, filmic, and beguiling jazz. The last song on his latest album, his ninth solo record, features the vocals of Anna Maria Friman of Trio Medieval and it brushes up against the current reemergence of New Age Music as a fertile touchstone of experimentation.

Gravetemple “Athatolhatatlan Felemek” (From “Impassable Fears”)

This certainly won’t be for everyone, but if you are in the mood for some of the most extreme music released this year, Gravetemple deliver a blackened slab of impenetrable doom on the chaotic “Impassable Fears”. Stephen O’Malley, guitar god for decibel punishers Sunn O))), is joined by Attila Csihar, unrivaled vocal torturer for infamous black metal lifers Mayhem, and avant-garde polymath multi-instrumentalist Oren Ambarchi. The music works as an invocation of dark mysticism that Attila has described as an, “aim to break boundaries and to find new horizons via the challenging of our own concepts of existence via the channels of musical trance. To me it is like a contemporary way of Shamanism.”

We have finally reached the 50th volume of Timely Tunes. We are also halfway through 2017, so I thought I would do a brief recap of some of the best reissues and compilations released this year. A busy reissue season has seen everything from generous dips into Prince’s and Radiohead’s vaults to Nigerian disco and Brazilian electro-experimentalism.

TIMELY TUNES

Prince “Love and Sex” (From “Purple Rain Deluxe”)

“Purple Rain” was and remains a perfect album, but that doesn’t mean that Prince didn’t leave some (nearly as) magical outtakes from the sessions in the vault. The generous new reissue features a staggering collection of tracks that could have easily made the final cut. “Love and Sex” is a delirious, giddy, synth-y romp through Prince’s horny mind; a fully-formed hit that never was. Recorded just two days before the totemic “When Doves Cry”, Prince gives his newly acquired Yamaha DX-7 synth a fierce workout on this dance floor blast.

Fela Kuti created a framework for forward-thinking body and soul music during the stultifying oppression of 1970’s Nigeria before his compound was destroyed and he was imprisoned in 1977. What followed was a group of musicians who moved away from the political and toward the more purely physical music happening in America at the end of the decade. This compilation collects some scorchers that could handily worm their way into any DJ set. “Enjoy Your Life” is peak disco perfection.

CAN “I Want More” (From “The Singles”)

An unusual release, as I have never thought of CAN as a “singles” act, but it’s a wonderful introduction and encapsulation anyway. CAN are best exemplified by digesting their otherworldly albums (“Tago Mago”, “Ege Bamyasi”, “Future Days”, and “Soon Over Babuluma” are my favorites), but hearing their work in this context gives a new and exciting perspective. The German experimentalists (accompanied by African-American vocalist Malcolm Mooney from 1968 to 1970 and Japanese outsider Damo Suzuki from 1970 to 1973) were a fount of weirdo-brilliance; incorporating avant-garde minimalism, early electronic music, psychedelia, funk, and a cornucopia of other sounds. “I Want More” is a propulsive highlight from the otherwise scattershot, but somewhat underrated, 1976 album “Flow Motion”. LCD Soundsystem built their career on songs like this.

Mulatu Astatke “Mulatu” (From “Mulatu of Ethiopia”)

Composer and musician Mulatu Astatke is the king eternal of Ethio-jazz; an Addis Ababa-groomed phenom who took his groundbreaking fusion of African pentatonics, Latin rhythms, and Western jazz to London and New York City. A favorite of crate-diggers and hip-hop producers for decades, he has seen a renaissance of interest in the past decade, and this reissue is a fantastic introduction to his singular sound.

Grateful Dead “Loser” (From “May 1977: Get Shown the Light”)

I started collecting Grateful Dead bootlegs in the early days of Internet message boards when I was 12 or 13, and spent awhile submerged in the culture of Deadheads searching and trading for that perfect concert recording. The shows of May 5, 7, 8, and 9, 1977 are widely considered a, if not THE, peak of the band’s live prowess. I admit that I haven’t made my way through this entire exhaustive eleven-disc box set yet, but what I have heard is among the best distillation of what made me a believer. It seems that the Dead have come back into some critical favor over the past few years, but their output is ridiculously daunting to traverse. You can start in worse places than this if you want to catch the bug. If you thought they weren’t for you, it might just change your mind.

For some reason, a 93 minute concept double album about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ by a group of cowboy hat wearing post-rock weirdos from Denton, Texas, released just a few months before 9/11, was unable to breakthrough to any sort of commercial success. Behind a wall of crushing My Bloody Valentine-indebted feedback and shot through with raw, wild emotion, the album did become an underground cult classic. Leader Josh T. Pearson, who was forced by financial necessity to be the album’s producer, was always unhappy with the final mix and this reissue gives the album the heft, subtlety, and depth of sound that it always deserved. Nothing before or since has sounded quite like this wonderful oddity, which means that it has only grown stranger and more compelling.

Radiohead “Lift” (From “OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997 2017”)

An eternity and a moment have seemed to pass in the twenty years since my mind was first blown by “OK Computer”. The new reissue features that perfect album complimented by era-specific B-sides and a few mythic, previously unreleased songs. One of the most sought-after tracks is “Lift”, a soaring anthem that sounds like a logical step forward from the world-conquering Britpop of “The Bends”. According to the band, they decided to leave it off because they believed that it would have been a huge commercial hit but were worried that it could have taken their career down a path they were trying to avoid. The decision obviously didn’t end up hurting them in the long run, but it’s nice to finally have an official release of a song that is as good as anything they wrote in their pre-obfuscating second act.

Ten years seems like a short turnover to re-release an album that never quite felt like a classic in the first place, but this generous reissue of “Send Away the Tigers” reveals that I may have underrated the album when it first came out. The band is forever haunted by the spectre of barbed wire lyricist/guitarist Richey James, who disappeared not long after the release of their bleak masterpiece “The Holy Bible” and was never found. Somehow the band managed to carry on, following it up with another superb album, “Everything Must Go”, before they saw a considerable dip in quality on their next two records. “Send Away the Tigers” was a revitalizing comeback (even if I prefer its follow-up “Journal For Plague Lovers”), and it’s a much more interesting album than I remember. Where this reissue becomes even more revelatory is in the bonus tracks, full of some excellent B-sides and rarities. Among the best is “Leviathan”, a swaggering rocker first released on the War Child compilation.

Sheer Mag “Worth the Tears” (From “Compilation (I, II, & III)”)

This collection serves as a catch-all for the great Philadelphia punk band’s first three EPs; 40 minutes of hook after hook after hook. Sheer Mag fully embraces everything that made bands like Thin Lizzy so eternal (and one of my favorite bands to ever walk this planet), while managing to throw in enough originality and grit to keep anything from sounding tired. Every song is a gem of expert pop-craft and venom.

Helium “Ocean of Wine” (From “The Magic City”)

Mary Timony’s Helium stand shoulder-to-shoulder with PJ Harvey and Sleater-Kinney as one of the greatest post-riot grrrl rock acts of the ‘90s. Unfairly, Timony’s work has been, comparatively, somewhat under-appreciated, but a series of recent reissues of Helium’s discography seeks to right those wrongs. 1997’s “The Magic City” is the confident, exploratory apex of their output; a still-fresh opus of experimentation and emotional heft.

No one mixed psychic pain and hushed melodic virtuosity quite like Elliott Smith, and his greatest statement, “Either/Or”, still sounds just as vital twenty years later. He wrote sad-sack songs that were buoyed by a level of craft that was outside the grasp of most of his peers and those who later claimed him as an influence. “I Figured You Out” is one of his all-time best compositions, melancholy but not maudlin, but he left it off the original album and gave it to Mary Lou Lord because he was convinced that it “sounds like the fuckin’ Eagles”. That harsh assessment doesn’t actually ring true, but his self-awareness was one of many admirable traits.

The Beatles “A Day In The Life” (Remix) (From “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Deluxe Edition)”)

“Sgt. Pepper’s” was the first CD I ever owned and “A Day In The Life” remains my favorite Beatles song. But over the years the album has become one that I have returned to less and less. Where once it felt revolutionary, it had grown somewhat stale and gimmicky to me in comparison to “The Beatles” or “Abbey Road” or “Rubber Soul”. When I heard that George Martin’s son, Giles, was being put in charge of creating a completely new stereo mix from the original master tapes, I was cautiously intrigued. The original stereo version of the album was infamously oddly mixed, a strangely unbalanced display of new technology, but fans had also grown accustomed to it. This new mix sounds absolutely revelatory, shining a new light on a classic album in a way that is respectful to the way the album should have sounded in the first place. Essential.

There was no reason that, in 1987, Fleetwood Mac could have been expected to create anything more than a horror show of embarrassment. Interpersonal soap operas, financial excess, and septum-destroying drug abuse should have left them in creative tatters, but “Tango in the Night” somehow managed the impossible feat of being both another mega commercial AND creative success. As the years have passed, “Tango” has only grown in my personal esteem, marrying the quirks of the mesmerizingly fantastic, coked-out “Tusk” (my favorite Fleetwood Mac album; sorry “Rumours”) with a laser-sharp pop focus that makes it one of the truly great late-career records by any “legacy” act. “Where We Belong” is a skeletal demo, but it is magical all the same.

Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello “That Day is Done – Original Demo” (From “Flowers in the Dirt – Special Edition”)

An admirable, if not always successful, experiment in collaboration between two of our great songwriters, “Flowers in the Dirt” is one of the most interesting oddities in either’s discography. The new reissue features the original album, which features some great, if occasionally over-fussed songs, but where the reissue really shines is in the extras. The demo version of “That Day is Done” strips away the unnecessary accoutrements to reveal the warm heart of a secular gospel gem. Two great voices, a piano, and an acoustic guitar was all that the song really needed anyway.

The Creation “Biff Bang Pow” (From “Action Painting”)

The Creation, in their original incarnation, only existed in a brief flash from 1966 until 1968, but they left behind a terrific string of vital singles and one shambolic album (1967’s unfortunately-titled “We Are Paintermen”). They never came close to achieving the success of their British Invasion peers, but they had all the nervous, proto-punk energy of The Who and at least a portion of the wit of The Kinks. They received some posthumous love from mod-revivalists like The Jam in the late-‘70s, but they remain a bit of an obscurity. My favorite reissue label, Numero Group, released this fantastic collection of their work that is a must for anyone interested in revved-up ‘60s British rock.

Soundgarden “Flower” (From “Ultramega OK (Expanded Edition)”

Soundgarden’s 1988 full-length debut, released on the legendary SST label, was a hint of the power the band was on the verge of harnessing. “Flower” opens the album and remains one of their greatest metallic pop confections. They perfected this amalgamation of heavy metal and Beatlesque pop melody on later albums, but “Ultramega OK” remains an essential document of Seattle before the scene became a global phenomenon. Kim Thayil was already a monster of the riff and Chris Cornell was a fully-formed vocal maverick.

Swans “I Am The Sun” (From “The Great Annihilator”)

“The Great Annihilator” was the first Swans CD that I was able to find and buy, after being introduced to their eviscerating music in the early days of MP3 dial-up downloading, so it will always hold a special place for me, even if it isn’t my favorite Swans album. It finds them caught in between the crushing brutality of their early years and their expansive third act, but is still worth revisiting. “I Am The Sun” is a bite-sized distillation of the dichotomies of love and hate that Michael Gira has built his career upon.

I have already featured another track from this revelatory reissue in a previous Timely Tunes, but it’s worth reiterating just how incredible this album is. Culled from a small catalog of idiosyncratic recordings by the blissfully enigmatic Alice Coltrane when she was living in the Hindu ashram that she founded and directed from 1983 until her death, this is, easily, one of my favorite records of the year. It is an example of the transcendental heights that spiritual music can reach.

I heard that this album was labeled “ambient reggae” by someone from “the Pacific Northwest” and very nearly avoided it on principle, but I’m glad I didn’t. Kerry Leimer’s soundtrack to the 1982 documentary of the same name is an unclassifiable mix of ambient beds of synth and, on this track, disembodied samples of Jamaican vocals. The film focuses on the impact of Rastafarian culture on Jamaican music, but the soundtrack stands on its own as a beguiling work of art.

The label RVNG has begun re-issuing some long-forgotten mystic gems lately at a surprising clip, and this one by Spain’s Pep Llopis is perhaps the most intriguing yet. Llopis recorded this disarmingly original album in 1987 after exploring the islands of the Mediterranean. Influenced by American minimalists like Steve Reich, but achieving a unique sound that is enveloping, yet tastefully restrained; a beautiful rediscovery.

Brazil is home to some of the most beautiful music on the planet, but between 1964 and 1985, much of it came under a near-constant attempt to squash any creativity by a culturally oppressive military government. Inimitable stars like Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil were exiled, and others like Milton Nascimento were forced to find work-arounds in pursuit of transcendence. This vital collection of strange and wonderful sounds recorded as the country attempted to transition from darkness, is a portrait of exceptional experimentation. It’s full of highlights, but Anno Luz’s wordless, dreamy “Por Que” is especially haunting.

Dominique Lawalree “Musique Satieerique” (From “First Meeting”)

Dominique Lawalree is a mysterious composer who has spent his entire life in Belgium (and who now spends time playing piano and organ at church), and “First Meeting” is a compilation of the idiosyncratic work that he released on private press between 1978 and 1982. Influenced by the work of Erik Satie, John Cage, Pierre Boulez, and Brian Eno, the latter toyed with the idea of releasing Lawalree’s music on his own label, Obscure Records, before it folded. Until the release of this collection, his music was limited to titles distributed by English composer Gavin Bryars, and it is great to finally have a portion of his work plucked from obscurity.

Brother Ah “Inner Voice” (From “Divine Music”)

French horn phenom Brother Ah worked with Donald Byrd, John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Roland Kirk, Don Cherry, Thelonious Monk, and so many other heavy-hitters in the jazz world, but this Light in the Attic Records release collects three of his previously unreleased solo records (recorded in 1978, 1981, and 1985). It is incredible. Experimenting with elements of Eastern and “Third World” music, they reflect a restless creativity that sounds unlike anything else.

Tomorrow’s People “Open Soul” (From “Open Soul”)

Rereleased on Floating Points’ Melodies International label, this album, which sometimes sells for $1500, has finally been reissued. What truly sells the album is the cosmic and insane 20 minute title track. It’s a truly epic, exhaustive but never lagging, funk-soul workout that will probably blow your mind. Even if the rest of the album doesn’t quite live up to this high water mark, it doesn’t matter when this track starts playing.

Deathprod “Treetop Drive 3” (From “Treetop Drive”)

I regret not being able to make time for Deathprod’s allegedly levitating set at Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival this year. Performed in sensory-depriving pitch blackness, it was supposedly one of many highlights (I did see a lot of other incredible acts that weekend and recommend the festival to anyone who prizes boundary-pushing music). Helge Sten is a Norwegian soundscaper and is probably best known for being a member of the avant-garde improv group Supersilent, but his solo work as Deathprod is ambient drone at its most darkly affecting. These early pieces sound like beautiful decay.

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Welcome to Life With Dee!
I'm a Francophile with a hippie heart, trying to create a beautiful life in the country while dreaming of Paris. Join me as I share inspiration to help you create your own "beautiful life".